Citation

Vecina ML. Am. J. Men. Health 2018; 12(5): 1554-1562.

Affiliation

Facultad de Psicología, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/1557988318774218

PMID

29737938

Abstract

A moral model is proposed to understand how men convicted of violence against the partner can feel moral in spite of their past violent behavior and their current violent and sexist attitudes. Because of its appeal to the role of self-deception and its relationship to psychological well-being, it was hypothesized that a rigid conception about what is right and wrong (moral absolutism) is associated with ambivalent outcomes that keep their psychological system in homeostasis. The relationships were specified a priori and tested using path analysis. Several fit indices supported the adequacy of the model and showed that moral absolutism was indirectly related to both psychological well-being and a good moral self-conceptualization through self-deception. At the same time, moral absolutism was related to sexist and violent attitudes and a poor moral self-conceptualization. Future interventions could include strategies to reduce the resistances to change based on the reduction of moral absolutism and self-deception.

Language: en

Keywords

Intimate partner violence; ambivalent sexism; moral absolutism; moral self-concept; self-deception